How Things Were
by Ryan M Prower
Summary: Fragmented memories and flashbacks bring the young kitsune to question who he is and why he's here. Being rescued by Tails and Sonic after the fall, he recovers slowly from his wounds and becomes close with Tails, but is he close enough to reveal the things he sees when he sleeps, to him? Is there any way he'll get his full memory back?
1. Chapter 1

Dear journal,  
My time here has really taught me a lot. One of them is that you can't trust anyone. Another one is not to get pushed around. I've already learned this but its just that I've been becoming soft. Anyways, I've have been hanging out with Tails after school. He's like a father to me, although he's practically the same age as me.  
"Hey, freak! I'm talking to you!"  
Looks like that fucking gorillas' here. I'll write more later. Ryan signing out.  
He stored his small booklet into his pocket. He sighed and stood up. He looked at the gorilla and his gang that was coming at him.  
"Hey freak, its time to pay your taxes."  
"I don't need to pay you anything." Ryan looked at the gorilla right in its blood shot eyes.  
"What the fuck did you just say?!  
"I said, I don't need to pay a shit smelling gorilla, anything."  
Clunk  
The monkey aside of the gorilla hit Ryan on his head with a club. Ryan started to feel dizzy but shook it off.  
"Is that all you got!"  
"Get that little bitch. I know he has some money."  
The monkey followed the gorilla's orders and started to walk towards Ryan.  
"Have to catch me first!" And with that, he sped off. He didn't find this as the cowards' way out anymore. He found this as a tactical move. Plus, if he got in another fight, he would've been expelled.  
The bell rang and crowds of people started to run from their spots to their classes. Unfortunately for Ryan, his was at the other side of school.  
"Where is he? Can you see him?" One of the monkeys jumped high and got on one of the palm trees in the quad area.  
Another monkey jumped from the roof and hung on a higher palm tree.  
"Nope, I don't see that little brat."  
"AHH-"  
"Hey man, where'd you go?" He looked towards where the other monkey was at a few moments ago.  
"Care to join him?"  
"Wha-?"  
The gorilla finally got to the quad, irritated, pushing many that were in his way.  
"Jorge, John, where are you maggots at?"  
The gorilla kept walking until he heard a clunk noise above him. "Huh?" he said as he looked upwards. He barely had time to react and toppled to the floor by John and Jorge.  
"What happened?" the gorilla asked laying down and dazed on the floor.  
"He… he whacked us…" answered John.  
"Whacked us good…" ended Jorge before him and his brother went unconscious.  
The gorilla threw both of them off his back. He dusted off his shoulders and started getting up. He got to one knee and looked up.  
"Who's boss now!?"  
Ryan looked down at his three unconscious opponents. He smirked and ran to class.  
Yes! Made it on time. He looked around in the class. The tables were paired in groups of four, all facing each other. Ryan gave a soft sigh and sat at his desk.  
"I see you still have problems with them," whispered the guy in front of him.  
"What… AS?"  
"Yeah."  
"Nah, they're too easy to handle."  
"You're going to get in trouble sooner or later you know?"  
"Well until then, it's all good."  
"Yeah?"  
"Yeah."  
"Yeah?"  
"Yeah."  
"Yeah?"  
YES!" Ryan said loudly, everyone looked at him in different ways. He was really hated in that class, in the whole school in fact. Not all of them hated him but most did. People thought of him as a jerk. He thought so too. But in reality, he knew that when its needed, he could be comprehensive and sincere.  
"If it'll make you feel better," his classmate whispered to him and moved in closer," You look pretty."  
Ryan looked at him funny and then just chuckled at what he said. Steven was always one of his most random friends; but was one of his greatest friends. He would usually try (and succeed) in annoying Ryan with comments like," I'ma break yo nose," or," I think you're pretty," and his most classic," I'ma suck your dick."  
-bzzzz-  
"Okay class, start writing in your journals, if you don't have them, come and get them. You have ten minutes to finish the whole page starting now."  
"You do know you're going to get killed right?" Brianna said when she threw Ryan's journal at his desk.  
"Yeah, so? Someone has to show them whose boss and not to mess with my race."  
"Hope you die." She said as she sat down on her desk diagonally of Ryan and opening her journal.  
"Well, if it means not seeing your ugly ass monkey face… then its fine by me.  
Brianna reached out for Ryan but stopped when they both made eye contact.  
"Scarred?" he smirked.  
She sighed," You know that when you change your eyes it creeps me out."  
"Sure, whatever you say."  
Ryan looked to his left," And what's up with you? You usually say something by now.  
The monkey turned to Ryan," Eh, I didn't want to bud in again."  
"Aiight Hy, thanks."  
His table got started on doing their journals, but as always, Ryan and Steve started to fool around and when things looked as if they became calm, Ryan would push Steven's hand while writing, making whatever he was doing messy and unreadable.  
"Dam it! Ima suck your dick if you don't stop."  
"Ha ha, okay okay. I'll stop."  
-Five minutes later-  
"You didn't even write anything in your journal!" exclaimed Steven  
"Me vale?" he said, showing a smile.  
Ryan pulled his hands behind his head. He looked around again. "Hi Annie!"  
As always, Annie would just wave her hand at Ryan without saying a single word.  
He looked back to his group with a smile and saw that everyone was done writing. "I'll take em." He took the four journals to the drawer. Right when he got there and put away the journals, the door next to him burst open.  
"Where's Ryan!?" a tall looking badger came in looking particularly angry but satisfied.  
Ryan sighed.  
"You're coming with me!"


	2. Chapter 2

Everything felt like a dream, some bad hallucination that had occurred. Many worlds, so many experiences, memories lost instantly as I woke up. Recollecting the pieces I could remember, only to have them make no sense at all as everything else is blurred motions like a picture taken with shaky hands. Was it all a dream, or did everything happen? A corrupted memory with only the outline of stringed emotions; what the hell happened, what really happened!?

"Is he going to be better?"  
"Is he going to die?!"  
"Sonic don't you dare ask that!" the woman's voice sounded irritated by the question. "And Tails, I am very sure he will be fine. It might take him some time to recover, but he will be alright."  
Everyone sighed, there seemed to be more people in the room than the ones who had spoken. Ryan moaned as he tried to stir, his body still feeling tender from the fall.  
"I think he's waking up," a child said with enthusiasm. Ryan opened his eyes, the room filled with the morning sunlight was too strong. Flinching, he tried to move his hand to cover his eyes, only to be met by an excruciating pain. His eyes shot wide open, not caring anymore of the burning eyes. With his other hand, he tried to compress his pain, holding tight to area.  
"What should we do!?" cried another female voice. Almost immediately he felt a needle dig into him, liquid filling his veins. The pain began to subside, he took a look into the room his was in. A honey colored fox, two hedgehogs, two rabbits, and an echidna… how strange.  
"The rocket…" Ryan mumbled out.  
"What was that?" asked the blue hedgehog."  
"Rocket… we have to… have to get…" Ryan moaned out, every word coming out softer and softer."  
"Wait! Don't pass out on me! What rocket? Where is it?"

His memory began to race, he could at least clearly remember that life. Explosions rained down on the canie, so much sand was kicked up that visibility was almost none. Shots rang out all along the trench line. This time, Ryan did not join into the fighting, a shell had struck close to him. The concusion wave had knocked him out for quite a long time. When he came back, he looked over the trench, grougly getting ready to run to the ships, even as the shells rained down. But despite the explosions and dust, the distinct look of rocket engines blazed in view, the glare of its fire slowly reaching to the sky.  
Ryan looked up to the roof as he pointed with his good hand," gone."

The desert-like terrain had it's sand cover the whole area. Dust filled the whole air. None can be seen, but all who were there were crying out in pain. All was quiet again, but to many of the survivor's dismay, the whistling object started to fall from the sky and strike the ground, kicking up even more sand from the explosion it created. The poor entrenched canie had been caught in a well placed artillery bombardment from the primates. At the beginning, many of those fit to run threw much of their weight, backpacks and weapons, and made a run for the LZ. Much of the late-battle wounded were left behind; those who could limp were blown to bits by the high explosive shells. A small group of canie ran through the trenches, two of them picking up weapons and ammo while the other two checked on casualties, the other stood guard.  
"Guys, I found him!" yelled one of the coyotes. Slouching on one of the sides of the trench sat Ryan, unresponsive. "You owe me five now," the coyote said to his fox partner.  
"Best two out of three?"  
They carried him to an underground passageway further along the trench. Canie sat all around the room, crudely made, but it would have to do. Those who could stand stood attention to Ryan as they laid him on the ground. "I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure his silence would mean 'at ease,'" someone in the room joked. It was a hard reality, still barely striking the minds of many, humor was a blessing.  
"So what's wrong with him?"  
"From what I can tell, he's asleep…"  
"You're not really a medic, are you?"  
"And you're not really a soldier, I think we have a connection here."  
"Settle down, settle down; this is no time for jabbings gone bad," the coyote started to examine Ryan. "Well, the good news is that he has a pulse…"  
"And the bad news?"  
"We need a gas mask to bring him back."  
"Can't you just do CPR?"  
"Do we have to through it again, how we're not really who we're supposed to be?"  
"Touche… "  
"Just breathe into him, that might work right?" someone in the back offered.  
"Go right ahead, be my guest."  
Ryan's eyes opened wide, he tried to take a deep breath as he sat up but someonething was making him choke. He tried again and again but whatever he had was lodged in him pretty good. Many started to pound his back, in hopes of helping but to no avail. "Out of the way!" a coyote yelled, pushing aside everyone in his path. He stabbed a needle into Ryan's chest, broke half off, and signaled everyoen to stay back.  
"You killed him!"  
"No I didn't, he had fluid in his lungs, making the pressure from the lungs and-"  
"Yeah yeah, whatever, that doesn't excuse you from stabbing the mofo."  
"Maybe if you let me finish explain, it would," the coyote retorted, standing toe to toe with a young dunderman.  
"That's enough!" Ryan yelled, now back to his coughing fit. He gestured evryone to hold a moment with his finger. " I'm alright now, see?" The dog shook his head, retreating back to his side of the wall. "So, do we all know what happened?" The whole room shook their heads," Good, that saves a lot of heart ache. That is all." Ryan sat back down against the wall.  
"Sir, we need leadership, you were the last one commanding us, tell us what to do."  
Ryan sighed loudly, enough so everyone could hear," Guys, there's nothing we can do. Really, there sin't. We can go ahead and think of far fetched ideas but the truth is that we're done for. All that comes to mind is die fighting..."  
"Then die fighting it is!" someone yelled from the background. Other began to start the chant, the whole room was shouting now with their hearts on their sleeves.  
This is mad, this whole room is mad! Ryan thought to himself. Then again, so am I..."  
"Choose your weapon, pick up a wounded, and carry as many supplies as you can, we're heading to the launch pad!"

"How is he today Ms. Vanilla?"  
"Oh, he seems to be improving now, you seem to stop by a lot now Tails."  
"Yeah, sorry about that," the fox said bashfully.  
"Oh sorry nothing, I don't mind and I'm sure he doesn't either!"  
The two chuckled but fell silent almost immediately, Ryan began to stir.  
"Miss Vanilla, was it?" Ryan asked as he began to sit up from his bed.  
Vailla nodded," Yes it is, wh-"  
"I'd like to say thank you, for nursing me back to health, I appreciate it, miss. If there is any way I could repay you."  
"Of course you can!" Vanilla said enthusiastically," Just tell me this, what is your name?"  
"My name is Ryan, Ryan… Ryan…."  
Vanilla looked at him quizzically," Is something the matter?"  
"I… I can't remember my name…" Ryan began to hyperventalate, his name, what was his last name!  
"Calm down, Ryan, just calm down, you'll remember eventually." But this didn't calm him down. Not a single hint of his full name, not a memory of his name being called came to mind to solve such a simple mystery. His name, how could he forget his name?  
"Prower, your name is Ryan Prower," the fox suggested. Ryan's breathing began to stabilize, slowing back down to low calm breaths.  
"And what is your name young fox," Ryan asked.  
"Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails!" the fox said with pride, turning his back on Ryan to wave his namesakes at Ryan.  
Ryan smiled at Tails,"Well, in that case, my name is Ryan M Prower!"

The barrage continued to pummel the trenches as Ryan and his men began to massively scavenge the area, looking for more survivors and ammunition for their mission. Ryan had found a whistle, advising everyone that once that whistle was blown, they would have to drop whatever they were doing and run for the launch pads. It had felt like hours to everyone as the deadly rain continued nonstop for an extensive time. "This is taking forever sir! I don't think they're going to let up!"  
"Shut your tramp James, I know what I'm doing." The explosions began to deminish rapidly, until only one explosion sounded, like an off cue symbol. Ryan blew his whistle and they all headed to the pad. Not long after did they start to hear gunfire," It's the primates, they're starting to move in!"  
Ryan blew his whistle twice, signaling those with machine guns to quickly set up and provide supressive fire. Almost simotaniously did all the gunners start to fire their weapons. After just a few seconds, he whistled a long blow, it was time to run again. Ryan waited ofr some of the gunners to start running before he began his own repositioning.  
"Sir, we have a line with Goliath!" someone yelled for Ryan, his voice full of hope. He grabbed the phone from his radio operator and began to speak with one of spacecraft in orbit.  
"This is Young Major, how may I take your order."  
"A-fucking-mazing major, we thought you were dead," the old general croaked.  
"You better believe it, it'll take a lot more than a shell to take me out."  
"Knock on wood; were able to achieve orbit and are now set right on top of you. You give us some coordinates, and we'll see how much our artillery guns can do from space!"  
"Roger that! You heard the general, get into position and get ready to mow those primates down! We got our own shells to abliterate them now!" The canie chanted and cheered, rushing out the door to follow Ryan's orders.  
"Sir, there isn't a way to come pick us up, is there?" There was silence at the other end for some time until he heard a deep breathe be taken.  
"I'm sorry son, but there isn't. You're on your own once we send our last shell hurtling to those bastards."  
"Then what do we do sir?"  
"That is up to you major… best of luck."  
"Thank you sir," he began to hand over the phone to his operator, but not before hearing the last words spoken to him by Goliath.  
"You'll never be forgotten!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Good morning Miles!" Ryan shouted enthusiastically in seeing his friend coming for another visit. Tails chuckled and gave a response back. It's been two weeks since Ryan was found, so far his arm was still very sore from the fall but he's been quickly recovering from his injuries. Miss Vanilla had started to give him permission to play in the front porch and no further. He was supposed to play with Cream; however, she was still hiding away from him. He had only as to gotten a glance of her during his two weeks there. He hated it though, he felt extremely alientated, and most of all, his privledges were taken away. He was now looked as very young, he remembers himself being fifteen when he got here but oddly, after many tests done by Tails' equipment and Ryan's own tests, he came to the realization that he had become younger. Further along to that, he had reoccuring dreams that left him waking in a panic while in the back of his head, a nagging feeling that he was forgetting something bothered him every step of his day. All of this, and he didnt even have enough room to go out in a run. "So, where are we going today, Miles?"

"Oh, come on Ryan, how many times do i have to tell you to call me Tails!" Tails retorted, scratching the back of his head. "And anyways, have you gotten permission from Mrs. Vanilla?" Ryan mumbled a reply. "What was that?" He didnt give a response, only loopking away from Tails. "You have to ask her for permission, technically she's your legal guardian now, so you have to ask her."

"Back then, I was allowed to go wherever i waated to go."

"And that led to you losing your memory and breaking your arm!" A moment of silence as Tails stood there with his eyes closed, satisfied that he won the argument. Ryan only pouted back.

"I thought you were supposed to be helping me here," he began to walk to ask Vanilla for permission," Besides, how come you get to live all by yourself and not me. And on top of that, from what i heard you were younger wh-." Ryan's voice cut off as he went in, Tails stood outside smiling, coldsweat as he stood there waiting for Ryan to come back out.

"We're running out of ammo, sir."

"Just keep shooting if you still got some, everyone else take shelter in the facility. Grab any weapon you can get." They both had their back at the entrance of a bunker. A short rest from the fighting as they reloaded their weapons. Eveyrhting turned for the best, in actuality. To their luck and unknowing, the adults of the operation didn't just construct a shallow traingle of bunkers, there was a whole underground facility. Though he hadn't been able to enter underneath, he ordered two squads of three to map out the whole area and bring back as much information as they could in thirty minutes. A mistake that only now he's noticed, it's only been around twenty minutes and they were almost out of ammo. "Hey Jennie!" he shouted to the girl across from her, she gave a nod of attention," I don't know if I should be happy that the corridors could be this big or hate it with a passion."

Well," she began to say, but bullets started to whizz into the room, the fight started again; she began to raise her vioce," Let's just hope those coyotes didn't get lost!" There was a short pause of gunfire enerting their bunker entrance, they took the opportunity and began to spit lead of their own outside.

"Happy thoughts, Jennie, happy thoughts!"

"So then turn that switch up."

"This one?" The engine began to sputter to life, he'd finally learned to turn on a plane.

"Nice! Now, time for the take off," Tails stopped leaning from outside the cockpit and entered the co-pilot's seat," Try increasing the throttle until-"

The blood rushing through me, saturated by adrenaline. This feeling, where did I get this before...

Ryan had accelerated the plane to it's maximum, in seconds he had enough speed to pull up into the sky, a wreckless take off. All the while, Tails hadn't been yet adjusted to his seat, struggling to keep his face out of the seat. "Hey! I didn't say to go yet! GAH, slow it down!" But Ryan couldn't hear him, he was in his own world, pulling strait up into the sky. He began to level off at two thousand meters. "Holy crap Ryan, don't do that ever again!" Tails began to regain his breathe. "Okay, I'll have to admit that was one fast take off. I didn't really expect to get this far in our lesson today, but luckily, I was prepared just in case..." Tails ebgan to trail off, trying to look around him for something. "Okay, for now, just do basic manuevers. I modified your targeting screen so that you're able to see markers and arrows on the screen. I'll play a simulation first, then you try to perform it, okay?"

"Roger that."

"DON'T do them until I tell you to!" Tails glared at Ryan from the backseat. "Okay, let's start off with a displacement rolls..."

"Last salvo has been shot, we are leaving orbit!"

"Roger that, thank you, for everything."

"No, we left you behind. We're practically leaving you for dead. If anything, we should be the ones thanking you, apologizing, giving everything we can to you..." teh voice began to break.

"General, you shouldn't lose your composure like that; it wouldn't be good for our people."

Sniffling came through from the radio. "Well, look at you, nine and consoling an old man like me. This was exactly what I mean."

"We all have our bad times."

"That's not what I meant, Ryan. All of you down there, you're just children. You're so young, doing an adult's job. It hurts me, knowing I made so many lose the opportunity of experiencing the beauties of life."

"That's very heartfelt, sir, but don't speak to us as if we're already dead." Only silence from the other side. "We'll make it, one way or the other. You can count on it!"

"Then good luck, wherever it is we me-" the radio began to buzz with static. Ryan ran to the wall, the ground shaking as artillery began to hit around the bunker. "Report!" he shouted through the intercom.

"The primates are sending another barrage, they hit the communications tower. We can only message people within the facility."

"Surface structure."

"We got two bunkers left standing, the wounded were moved to the clinic, reporting ninety-two wounded, fifty-three dead, twenty-seven missing, and three hundred-seventy-eight still in fighting condition. An unknown number are scattered throughout the beach, we're not alone!" The sound of a whining engine became louder and louder. "Sir, there's reports of planes inco –" but it was already too late, an explosion sounded off outside the bunker.

"Claire! Claire! God dammit, are you alright!"

Coughing form the other line, it was definitely sounded like Claire's tone. "Listen, a while ago, the general told me there were three aircraft prototypes in the hanger. Get someone to pilot those things, contact me once you get your pilots. Take your time on catching your breathe!"

Ryan didn't expect an answer back, so he ran outside the bunker to get a better look. Primate aircraft, stolen technology from canie when both species made a truce with each other, ironically primitive, they were flying biplanes. "Good thing these feather brains can't move on easily, we got better tech…" Ryan ran back inside, heading to into the facility. "All remaining bunkers, move down to the facility, the bunkers have been compromised! I repeat, the bunkers have fallen!"

He made it down the ladder and ran to the central command room. Already inside, many canie were running around, giving quick reports another fox inside. "What's the situation Travis."

"Ah, good to see you're finally down here with the rest of us."

"Status. Report."

"We found your pilots, but we only have two of them. Clarie is okay, she joined in with the wounded but she ensists to keep being in good-to-fight status.

"Then do what she wants, she should still be good to carry the wounded. Have the scouts come back from scouting?"

"Only two, one of them had a message from the last group. It reads," Travis picks up a folded note form the planning table," We have found a lone corridor, it may stretch out back to the city. Will send a member back after one mile."

"Well, that's nice to hear. Were we able to find weapons?"

Travis threw him a Mosin," You'd better believe your hopeless dreams we did."

"Alright then, distribute ammo, make ambush points and keep that corridor open as an exit plan but have two canie guarding it in case Whiskey team isn't the ones coming back from that hall." Travis gave a nod of response. "Meanwhile, I'll be taking some flying lessons, I hope you don't mind me keeping this." Travis gave a go ahead gesture to Ryan but he had already left the room. He continued to get reports from scrambling canie.

"Hey! You're our third pilot, yah?"

"No you twit, that's the major, how can I halp ya sir?"

"Names."

"My name is Mark, this is John. We're your fighters for today."

"Great, now teach your Major a new trick, will you?"

It took only two minutes for the brothers to teach Ryan the basics, all they really did is show him what the stick does and turned on the plane for him. The learning curve was going to be steep. They took off into the skies, Ryan gave them the order to leave him behind and have the duo do their own thing. Luckily, they were going against low tech bi-planes, they were flying single engined Coyotes, a step up in everything but manueverability, as the biplanes could still out turn them. The duo were racking up kills but Ryan couldn't shoot down a single plane, he kept shooting past them. At last, Ryan gave up going after air targets and began fishing ground targets. This he really began to hang of almost immiedietly. The skies were clear, and the duo joined Ryan in destroying the primates' advancing armor.

"Hoh man! We're tearing them one huge asshole, aren't we Major?" Mark commented through the radio.

"You'd better believe we are!"

"Guys, I'm out of machinegun and cannon ammo."

"Drop your bombs and head back to the hanger."

"Got it major."

"That goes second for me, I've wasted too much."

"Affirmative, let me just finish my own and I'll join you." All three split formation, selecting their own targets as they swooped in to take them out. They circled around and came in for one last strafing run.

"Ryan, look out for that truck! It's got an AA gun on it..." Ryan began firing both cannons and machine guns at it but only a shot of both spit out. He ran dry from everything. "Major, what are you doing? Shoot him!"

"I'm out of ammo!"

"Pull up, pull up!" Ryan's plane began to sound like a hornet's nest as the high caliber bullets began to tear up his aircraft. Oil began to leak into the cockpit, a fire started just outside on the side of it. "Major, eject! Pull the red lever!" Ryan couldn't find it, everything was black and he couldn't see at all. He frantically reached everywhere and pulled on everything there was. He reached under his seat and pulled one, it was exactly it. He was catapulted out of the plane, just as it slammed into the truck. His seat struck the ground hard, the parachute barely able to break his fall. He could hear small arms fire somewhere away, but was too disorientated to figure out if that direction was towards the bunkers or towards other fighting groups in the beach. His vision blurred to an extreme, he couldn't see a thing.

"My troops, I've got to get to my troops..."

He collapsed on the floor, growing weaker and weaker. Whatever he had left in his stomach spilled out in front of him. A few steps later he fell to the ground, he stretched out a hand in hopes that someone would pull him.

"Nice job Ryan, you hit every target!" Tails commented on Ryan's lesson today. They were now inside Tails' house, relaxing in his living room over cold drinks. "Man, that was so intense though! I almost thought you were going to shoot past the blue target and slam into the forest, holy chaos emeralds, that was so cool!" Ryan only smiled back bashfully," Have you ever flown before?" Ryan's smile faded, he himself didn't know if the dreams he had were truly real or if they were only figments of his imagination. But if they were, how did he obtain so many skills, skills that have popped suddenly when asked to do something for the first time? His mind and vision started to swirl, distorting everything and losing feeling of what's real and fake. An endless abbys before his eyes and he felt the sensation of falling. "Ryan!"

"That voice, where did that voice come from, nothing is here, nothing is real!" Ryan began to scream,"What is real, who am I really, where did I come from?

"Ryan, what's wrong!" Ryan opened his eyes again, everything was back to normal, the swirling began to stop and his sensation of falling disappeared. With his crippled balance, he tried his best to make his way upstairs and into Tails' bathroom. He barely got there and aimed for the toilet. He let one heave out before falling unconcious.

Churning and squeaking grew louder and louder. A few bullets hit near his head. He felt his body aching, he couldn't move, he didn't want to move. A thunderous explosion sounded just beside him, loud enough to snap him back to his senses. He looked over and he couldn't believe his eyes, a Foxer Federation 145. By it's identification on it's side, a drawing of a fox sleeping, it was Canie's 5th Amored Calvery, legends to say the least of these men. The hatch popped open as a greasy wolf popped out its' hatch. More of the regiment moved in. C-40-50s alongside it's bigger brother C-40-90s, FF-90s, 110s, 125s, Syndicate 1s, and, most of all, Syndicate 2s, Ryan had only dreamed of being able to ride in one. The wolf looked around a bit, trying to get a good view from the battle ahead. "Hey Trevor, make way for the small firefight ahead. It looks like a small pocket is over there and we'll help them out to retreat." A distorted echo came form the inside and the commander nodded. "I know, we might be able to find some information about that once we get there and save them." Just then, he turned around and saw Ryan looking up at him, awe struck. "Hello youngling, what would be your name."

"Young Major, sir." Ryan saluted up to him.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me, where's the general."

Ryan gave out a small sigh before he pointed up to the sky," Long gone, the last rocket left some time ago. I'm in charge ever since the general left orbit, unless you out rank me."

"Well, I don't, but since I'm older, I think I'm in charge now."

"That's a shitty way of thinking, I mean honestly."

"You're probably 13, I have way more experience than you do and I think I'm better suited for this, so I'm in charge now."

Ryan wasn't going to take any of it, he completely ignored what he said," Lend me that motorcycle," Ryan pointed to one attached to the back turret of a Syndicate 1.

"Now why would I do that!"

"I need to get back to my group, you can keep being an asshole to your current group but my squad believe in me that I could get them out and I'm almost done doing it, I don't want some guy who just burst out of the bush to ruin everything, so I'm off."

Ryan didn't wait for a response, he just climbed up the tank and tried to unhooked the bike. It was too heavy for him to do so, but he still tried. "Opra, help the Major unhook that bike to send him out his way." A short while later, someone came out of the tank and was started to see Ryan, he went back into his tank," I know, I know, but that's the major now, he's the one in command apparently," he messaged before Opra could give out a retort. The commander came out once again and helped Ryan, all the while questioning him of what's going on. Opra's commander gave him a few instructions on how to operate it and Ryan went off.

"Hey, Cloudless, that kid had an air to him that was just way off."

"How do you mean Opra."

"It was too, unchildish."

"Say again, you're not making sense."

"It's like he talks too much as an adult, you know... no glow?"

Ryan made his way to the now secure bunker top, where a single bunker stood abandoned. He went inside and looked to see if the intercoms system was still online, luckily it was and he began to tell Travis of his findings, he sent out a few people to help Ryan get back into the tunnel. Have someone repair the communications tower and make a makeshift radio, we got survivors and a brigade of tanks going around saving people!"

He began hearing gears churning outside the bunker, he ran outside expecting to meet with the brigade but to his mistake, it was the primates' own tank force. It began to open fire at him. He dove into the bunker as bullets blazed inside, another cannon shot rang and hit the concrete at the end of the bunker. Continuous fire drove him to finally think this was his end. On the other side of the wall, a small band of diggers signaled Ryan to move to them. A dog came running up the stairs with an old recoiless rifle. He quickly aimed and fired it at the enemy tank; he took it out, creating a huge smoke screen but a second tank swiftly replaced it. Ryan leapt as high as he could but got shot in his leg when the tank began to blind fire inside. Squirming, the group carried him down to the tunnel.

"Vanilla, there's something wrong with Ryan again!"

"What do you mean there's something wrong with him, what happened!?"

"Nothing Miss, I swear! All I did was teach him how to fly, but it looked like he already knew what he was doing, I swear!"

"Tails, he just recovered from a concussion and a broken arm, what were you thinking!"

"He seemed fine now though and he always looked miserable in the yard, I wanted him to have fun!"

"Nonetheless Tails, this was too soon for him to start flying, just put cold cloth on his forehead if he's heating up, it may just be a coincidence and he might have had a fever all along."

Tails wet a nearby rag with cold water and rushed to Ryan's aid in the restroom, he had cleaned up around him earlier and put Ryan on his side. "Come on, Ryan, why did you have to do this!"

"For the greater good," he responded, trembling.

"You are your own greater good, Ryan," Tails comforted," If you were feeling bad, you should've just told me." Ryan couldn't even look at Tails, he lay on the floor trembling, staring at the wall in front of him. They both stayed this way for a while until Ryan began to respond, moving his arms to hold his head. "Finally, I was wondering if you were ever going to get back to normal, what happened?" Ryan groaned a response," Right, not yet; I'll ask again in a little bit." He began to cough up a storm, trying to regain his normal breathing, Tails helped him sit up straight. "Miss Vanilla is coming, she'll get you patched up in no time!"

"That... sounds good…"

Tails nodded," And... about my question from earlier?"

Ryan began to get nervous, he wasn't sure if he should finally tell someone about his dreams," I don't remember what question!" He tried to avoid it.

" I asked what happened," Tails responded, determinded to not let the conversation go. "I've heard you say things in your sleep, sometimes even I can't undertsand them but it's always like you're trying to justify something, something you did!" He began to shrink more and more, bunching himself up as much as he could, as if hoping that would shield him from what Tails was trying to get out of him. "You knew how to fly, you knew about medicine; to add onto that, you have reflexes that are too fast for someone your age!" Ryan began to whimper, Tails sighed and began to soften his voice," Ryan, I'm worried about you! I want to help you, just tell me... what happened?"

He though it over once more, of course he could trust Tails! He was all he had, if he couldn't share these thoughts with him, he was sure they would eat him from the inside. "Tails... Dont tell anyone, and I mean anyone. Do you promise me that?!"

"Of course Ryan, I'll never say a word."

"I see things. Horrible things that just seem too real for it to only be my imagination. Flashbacks, nightmares; every single night I go to sleep and witness them, my friends and family dying. Being in command of people, hearing their screams and their numbers dwindle against our enemies, oncoming monsters without a trace of mercy!' Ryan began to break down," We were so young, they were adults, but they kept trying to kill us. We weren't going to die without a fight, but still!" Tails bended down and gave Ryan a hug and held him tightly, as much as he could.

"Ryan, I don't know what to say... but all i can say is... thank you for telling me this, fo trusting me..."

Ryan returned the hug," Thank you..."


End file.
